No-nonsense Bill Stewart has made one thing clear to the media during his first 12 games as the Islanders’ head coach: Don’t expect him to fill up your notebooks with rip jobs on players, as his predecessor Mike Milbury once did.

Stewart, a former journeyman defenseman with Toronto, St. Louis, Minnesota and Buffalo, abhors the practice of coaches nailing players in the press. Oh, Stewart will destroy the team as a collective group, but singling out isn’t his style.

”I’m my own man,” said Stewart, who took a 4-4-4 record into last night’s encounter vs. the Devils at The Meadowlands. ”What’s said inside the four walls is kept inside the four walls. I think you’re a coward if you have to go through a different avenue to communicate to a player. Simple as that.”

Indeed, Stewart has not uttered a bad word yet about struggling goalie Felix Potvin, despite being prompted nearly every day.

”I’m going to tell you right now, I don’t bash players in the papers,” Stewart said. ”When I tell them what I think of them, I’ll look them in the eye. That’s the respect factor you have to have as player to coach.”

Stewart believes in most cases that players have the upper hand over coaches anyway because their contract is guaranteed in the NHL.

”Times have changed. and the mentality within the four walls of the dressing room has changed,” Stewart said. ”The Vince Lombardi approach doesn’t cut it anymore.”

Most of the Isles have taken to Stewart, although he is obviously no Mr. Softie. In his first week, Stewart scratched Mariusz Czerkawski for being two minutes early for a team meeting. After a 2-1 loss to Washington Feb. 9, Stewart went ballistic, tossing a couple of protein shakes around the locker room and hurling the paddle used to stir large quantities of Gatorade. The next day, he put the Isles through a 2 ½ hour workout.

But at least now they don’t have to cringe every time they pick up The Post. Veteran defenseman Rich Pilon spoke for the majority of Isles when he said:

‘Why tweak them in front of a million people when you can tweak them to their face?” Pilon said. ”I don’t understand why a coach would tweak you in the paper. Fans read the paper and that’s why fans get on players and you don’t need that. It goes down to communication between player and coach.

‘I’m a believer if you have something to say take him into the office,” Pilon added. ”If you have to do it in front of the guys, fine. But I like it done in close quarters, face to face.”

Stewart has gotten the Islanders to play .500 hockey. The pattern, however, has been the Isles getting up for the rugged opponents (see: Wednesday’s 3-1 romp over scorching Pittsburgh as the best example) while succumbing to the weaker foes (2-1 loss to Nashville, ties vs. Tampa Bay and Vancouver).

But as one member of the Islander brass said ”When [he] took over, we were struggling to win a period, let alone a game.”